After six astronomy packets, you are now almost
ready to be certified as a junior astronomer. One of the most
difficult things you will have to master as a junior astronomer is
learning how to find things in the sky.

There are millions of exciting and beautiful things
to look at in the sky, but you have to know where to look. If
you randomly point your telescope or binoculars at the sky, chances
are all you are going to see is either darkness or a few stars.

If you want to see neat things in the sky, you have
to learn where and how to find them. The first and most
important thing you must do is learn the constellations. You
must learn where they are in the sky. If you cannot look up at
night and quickly recognize what part of the sky you are looking at,
you will never be able to find fun things to explore with your
telescope or binoculars.

Take a week and just learn the constellations.

Secondly, you will need a sky map. You can
print free sky maps every month at www.skymaps.com.
If you want a really good sky map, I recommend you buy a book called
"Roger Tory Peterson's Astronomical Guide" or "National
Geographic Astronomical Guide." In these books you can
find each constellation on a separate page.

All you have to do is look up a constellation you
know, such as Orion. The book will tell you every galaxy,
nebula, star cluster and other interesting things to find in
Orion. Simply lie on your back and look for these objects one
by one. You already know where Orion is, the hard part is done.

Setting Circles:

Some telescopes have setting circles. These
circles are like dials. If you have a telescope with setting
circles, simply look up the right ascension and declination of the
object you want to see. Set your dials (setting circles) to
those numbers and look through the telescope. Your telescope
will be pointing directly at the object you were looking for.

Note: To use setting
circles you have to polar align your telescope. This is very
easy to do. If you have setting circles your telescope mount or
tripod probably looks like a "T". Simply point the
top part of the "T" at the North Star. Your telescope
will come with directions on how to do this.

You will also have to adjust your telescope for the
latitude of your city. Your telescope will have directions for
this as well.

Assignment # 5

Setting circles are a nice accessory for a
telescope, they make it much easier to find things in the sky.
But do you need setting circles to find your way through the
sky? Why or why not? If you do not have setting
circles, what is another way to find objects in the sky?